The Nation: Socrates' Way

Humanitarianism can take root in the flintiest soil. Even killing
ground. While the national debate about the death penalty goes on, the
Texas Senate last week passed a bill to make the method of execution in
Texas "injection of a substance in a quantity to cause death." Electric
chairs now wait for the some 58 inmates on Texas' death row, and
Representative Ben Grant, who sponsored the original assembly bill,
explains: "We've gone from stoning to the cross to the guillotine and
now we need a more modern method. The current ritual of burning a
person to death is a horrible...